Imagine for a moment that you are a small-business owner looking to hire a new employee. As tough as the economy has been, you’ve managed to put your firm on track to expand.

Now imagine facing a lawsuit for requiring perhaps one of the most basic qualifications for job applicants – a high school diploma. You don’t have to imagine that last part. It’s now an unfortunate reality thanks to guidance recently issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The “informal discussion letter” states that requiring a high-school diploma as a qualification for employment may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, which the EEOC enforces. Therefore, an employer must prove a high school education is “job related and consistent with business necessity,” or face potential fines or lawsuits brought under ADA.

Employers should take note. Despite this being an “informal” letter, EEOC investigators and trial lawyers will undoubtedly use this to their advantage. It continues an unfortunate pattern of federal agencies quietly making policy and stepping up enforcement on small businesses for the slightest missteps.

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I first crossed paths with Dennis Lennox more than two years ago. At the time, he was a junior student at Central Michigan University. By the time I first spoke with him, he had engineered a near year long battle with the faculty at CMU over Gary Peters. At the time, Peters was running for the U.S. Congress and concurrently he was holding the distinguished Griffin Chair. (Peters eventually won his Congressional election) The Congressio nal district was about 400 miles from campus. If, and now when, Peters won, he would have had to give up Chairmanship. Furthermore, the Griffin Chairmanship was supposed to be non partisan and a Congressional candidate was hardly that. Subsequently, emails and other leaked correspondence showed evidence of a corrupt process in choosing Peters for the Chairmanship.

Lennox waged a battle to have Peters choose, the Chairmanship or his Congressional race. By May of 2008, Lennox had effectively won his battle and Peters was asked to resign and he did. Lennox was not unscathed from his battle. The administration threatened sanctions against Lennox on a number of occasions. Eventually, a letter of reprimand was put into Lennox’ university records. In fact, the school attempted to hold a number of disciplinary hearings at which the potential punishment of Lennox could have been expulsion. At one hearing, Lennox showed up flanked by no less than six members of the media. The administration quickly cancelled that hearing and held another in secret over Spring break a couple weeks later.

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